Esme: Picture Show in Memoriam

The tone for this memoriam in pictures of the short life of Esme Kenney is provided by the Chicago-based artist Liz Carroll. Three compositions accompany the slide show. The Ornery Upright-Sass Is Back is a festive and upbeat backdrop to her earlier years as an ordinary little girl growing up with an extraordinary love with which to give back to her family and to anyone who was privileged enough to meet her. Hanley's House Of Happiness scales back the exuberance, beginning with a visit to her aunt fighting an illness in Cleveland in April of 2007. It finishes at returning from a visit with the maternal side of her family in Montana to the family cabin at the lake in Sioux Narrows, Canada in 2008. The plaintive and somber medley The Ghost-The Hatchlings-The Long Bow begins the "Journey to Golgotha," starting with napping after the long road trip from Montana. The Ghost accompanies a series of "doting aunt Esme" pics with her niece and nephew, including blueberry picking in the muskeg. The journey segues into The Hatchlings during a birthday party and finishes at the turn of the calendar to 2009 and her last few months. The Long Bow begins with showing off a birthday cake she made for her mom on January 1 and ends at the makeshift memorial board set up across the street from the house in the aftermath of her death on March 7, 2009.